HYDERABAD, Aug 15 Federal Minister for Oversees Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar has said that people of Qasimabad and Latifabad should be mentally prepared to cope with an emergency because embankments along the Indus have not been repaired over the past two to three decades.

Talking to journalists at the Latifabad-4 flood protective embankment here on Sunday, he said that if the peak flood crossed 600,000 to 700,000 cusec, it might pose a threat to the already weakened embankments.

He said that MQM workers had started reinforcing the embankments on their own, although basically it was the job of the agencies concerned.

Mr Sattar, who is also deputy convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's coordination committee, said that adequate preventive measures should have been taken in Sindh at the time of flood after the situation had worsened in Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Tajanpur. Although the work started quite late, but it was never too late.

He said that a contingency plan was being worked out to handle the situation of water seeped through embankments and entered settled areas. All civic agencies and government departments, including army, police were on high alert. The MQM, he said, had set up 10 monitoring camps and was regularly assessing the situation of embankments.

Dr Sattar said that the MQM needed 200 trucks of material for strengthening the embankments in Qasimabad and Latifabad. The party has enough manpower to do the job if it gets the material.

He said that rescue teams, including those of Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF), were preparing to meet any eventuality.

He said that if people did not leave kutcha areas by Aug 17 despite the warnings issued by the district administration, their houses would face severe threats from the flood.

He said the MQM had set up 50 relief camps and the district administration 56.

“Our preparations are still incomplete and we shouldn't consider that we are safe,” he said.

He appealed to philanthropists to cooperate with the KKF in accelerating its relief activities.

Earlier, Dr Sattar visited Panwhar Goth and Hussainabad embankments and the office of KKF in Mir's Gardens.